Those Darn Rogue NID Agents
by SPT
Summary: What might happen if Cross and Singer were able to infiltrate the NID after Nightwalkers, and were still intent on building their ship.
1. Chapter 1

**Title: Those Darn Rogue NID Agents**

**Rating: K+ for some violence and language**

**Disclaimer: I don't own or have any rights to Stargate: SG-1 or its characters.**

**Comments: This is my first Jonas fic because I just watched the 6th season for the first time, love his enthusiasm and those adorable dimples. This is written in a bit of an AU where Cross and Singer were able to escape and infiltrate the NID at the end of Nightwalkers.**

"Sir, I have the updated schematics for the ship. Everything is running on schedule except the sublight engines."

Agent Voss looked up sharply from the blue prints covering his desk. "Why aren't the sublight engines on schedule?"

The younger agent shifted his weight uncomfortably. He had seen first hand that the phrase 'don't shoot the messenger' didn't apply to rogue NID agents. "Well sir, the engineers haven't been able to correct for the instability of the naquadria." He closed his eyes and waited for the expected explosion.

"What! They were supposed to get those equations off the Prometheus."

Agent White gulped again. "Apparently they needed to keep the equations on board to make sure that alien, Quinn, fixed the computer correctly after they discovered his sabotage."

Voss rounded his desk and stopped three inches from White's face. "Then you either get those equations or bring me that alien so we can get the equations from him. We need those sublight engines if we're ever going to get off this infernal planet. Take agents Cross and Singer with you, maybe they can get him to come quietly." Voss's eyes glowed brightly in contrast to the dark sky through the window behind him.

**STARGATE: SG-1**

"Sam, this is amazing," Jonas didn't even try to hind the wonder in his voice. The base had a fairly good one, but it didn't even come close to this.

Sam chuckled, "just wait till you actually make it inside." They hadn't even made it to the top of the entrance stairs and Jonas was already fairly vibrating with excitement. "But remember, we only have two hours until we have to meet Col O'Neill and Murry for dinner." She couldn't help but laugh as his look of sheer disappointment, "don't worry, we can come back on Thursday. We have the whole day off." That 100 watt smile of his nearly blinded her.

Jonas stopped just inside the doors and viewed the scene with obvious awe. He knew Sam was laughing at him and that he would most likely be teased about this later, but he just couldn't bring himself to care. Even the one at the University on Kelowna wasn't this big.

The Denver Public Library was indeed very expansive.

Carter gently tugged on his arm, "this way."

Jonas ran his hand along the spines of the books as they passed through each section. He had been wanting to visit the Colorado Springs Library since he'd come to Earth, but he never expected to have the time to see the Denver one while they were visiting. "Where are we going?" They were almost to the far back corner of the building.

"You'll see." Sam was excited, she just knew that he was going to love this. She'd been wanting to do something nice for him for awhile, he was hardly ever allowed off base and he worked way to hard.

If Jonas hadn't been so enthralled with the visit, his amazing powers of observation would have picked up on the two men following them. As it was, the two men slipped through the library virtually unnoticed. They couldn't have asked for a better opportunity; a secluded place with only one team member present. They'd been following Quinn around for the last three days waiting for just such an opportunity. They had realized early on that they would have a much better chance of getting close to Jonas than they would the equations.

They stopped a few rows back as their quarry entered the mythology section. "Should we take Maj. Carter too, she could be helpful deciphering the equations?"

"No, he said he only wanted the alien. Besides if we take Carter, the SGC can use all possible state and federal resources to find her. If we only take Quinn, they won't even be able to admit he's missing. He's not supposed to exist."

Agent Cross frowned as the human tried to gain control again. It was only recently that the symbiotes had matured enough to take control while their host was awake and his human was still making unsuccessful attempts to fight him off. "Fine, there is an emergency exit down the hall to our left once we have him."

They moved a few rows closer and listened to the conversation coming from the mythology section.

"Sam, look at this, it's the Egyptian myth of Ra!" Jonas paged through the thick leather bound edition for a minute before looking up again. "Its kind of amazing how much of this is actually accurate," he frowned, "and how much of it is WAY off."

"Daniel used to say that all the time." Sam tried to keep the tremor out of her voice as much as possible.

"Sam, I…"

"Not your fault Jonas. Here take a look at this, its Celtic legends." Carter swiped at her eyes when Jonas dropped his nose into the new book.

They spent the next hour handing books back and forth commenting on the accuracies of each.

Two rows over, agents Cross and White were starting to get bored. They had hoped that at some point Cater would leave Quinn alone and head to another section. Involving her meant they would be leaving a witness, but they were running out of time. With a shared look the two rouge agents activated their Zats and crept toward Sam and Jonas.

Jonas cocked his head, he could have sworn he just heard a Zat activate. He shook his head and returned his gaze to the book in his hands.

Sam glanced up when Jonas cocked his head. She was about to ask what he was trying to figure out when he returned to his reading. Just before she returned her gaze to her own book, she noticed someone approaching Jonas from behind. It wasn't so much the man that caught her attention as it was the Zat in his right hand.

"Jonas, down!" She shoved him down with one hand while unholstering her sidearm with the other.

Preferring not to get shot, White had no choice but to switch his aim from Jonas to Sam.

Jonas watched in horror as Carter was enveloped by the blue light and slid bonelessly to the floor. Angrily, he turned and launched himself at the two men. Jonas knew he didn't stand much of a chance against two armed men, but he wasn't about to let them do anything else to Sam as long as he could help it. The thought that they were there for him never crossed his mind.

Neither Cross nor White had been prepared for the sudden attack. All three went down in a tangle of arms and legs sending the Zats skittering down the aisle away from Sam. Cross ended up on the bottom of the pile, smacking his head on the tile floor hard enough to stun him and draw blood. Jonas threw a couple of punched before realizing that going for the guns was his most viable option. He scrambled halfway to his feet trying to cover the fifteen feet separating him from the nearest Zat. Unfortunately, agent White moved quick enough to catch Jonas's leg, bringing him crashing into a wooded chair then to the floor. His eyes widened as the air was forced from his lungs but he managed to maintain enough coherent thought to kick out behind him. He allowed a small, smug smile at the resulting ooff, but it didn't hinder his progress toward the guns. White was relentless, he pounced again knocking Jonas into the bookshelf this time. He managed to land a number of punches before Jonas was able to throw him off again. Jonas scrambled to feet again only to be brought down a third time, this time by a bullet.

"You dumbass! Voss is going to kill you."

"Would you rather I let him kick your ass? Come on, grab him and let's get the hell out of here! I'll get the Zats." Cross kept one hand on the back of his head to curtail the bleeding.

"Wipe down Carter's gun and leave it here, no sense in keeping it."

**STARGATE: SG-1**

Col. Jack O'Neill sat twiddling his thumbs while he and Teal'c waited for their drinks.

"It is unlike Maj. Carter to be late."

Jack looked up from his hands; he'd just been thinking the exact same thing. "Oh, I'm sure she's just having trouble dragging Jonas out of the library. They'll be here soon." He tried to sound non-chalant, but the truth was, he was worried. Sam was NEVER late, even if she was dragging an overeager geek along behind her.

Teal'c raised an eyebrow, "you may be correct, but JonasQuinn does not usually require motivation to eat."

"You got that right." O'Neill dug into his coat pocket as his phone began ringing. "O'Neill… at a restaurant sir… WHAT!?... understood sir."

Teal'c noted how quickly the all the color had drained from Jack's face. "What is wrong, Col. O'Neill?"

"Denver Mercy just called the base, Sam's in the hospital."

"And what of JonasQuinn?"

"They didn't say." Jack stood and absently grabbed his coat. "We gotta get over there."

The two men tore out of the building leaving overturned chairs and one very confused waiter in their wake.

**What can I say, I love cliff hanger endings, sorry. Let me know what you think.**


	2. Chapter 2

Jack and Teal'c stormed into the front entrance of Denver Mercy and nearly ran head-long into Carter who was storming out. O'Neill quickly recovered from his shock, "They released you already?"

"I signed out AMA." She saw the lecture coming a mile away, "it was a Zat and the police were there with questions I didn't have answers for yet."

"Oh hell. Where's Jonas, they did bring him in with you, right?"

Carter stopped in her tracks, "he didn't come in with me. Hasn't he called you by now?" Her heart began pounding even harder when both men gave a negative shake of their heads. "We have to get back to the library!"

"Carter, calm down. Now what happened, from the beginning." He laid a gentle but firm hand on her shoulder to emphasize the 'calm down' portion of his statement.

Sam took a deep breath. "We were attacked, at the library, sir. They must have been following us and-"

"And JonasQuinn did not observe them?" It was common knowledge that Jonas noticed EVERYTHING, especially if someone was following him.

Carter allowed a small smile at that. "I think he was a little too excited about being in the library. Anyway, they came up behind Jonas with Zats. I didn't really get a good look at either of them and the last thing I remember is drawing my sidearm." Sam stopped to fight the overwhelming feeling of helplessness that was threatening to envelop her. They didn't know anything yet, he may be perfectly fine; there were tons of reasons he might not have been able to check in yet. "We need to get back to that library now, sir."

"Well then, lets go." Taking Carter's arm, he steered he toward the rental car. "Just tell me where we're going."

The police cars surrounding the front entrance of the library was not the sight they were hoping to see. This was not good, how were they going to explain Jonas, it wasn't like he had any ID for the police to run.

Sam picked up her phone. "Maj Carter for Gen. Hammond please… thanks… I'm fine, thank you sir… General, we need to take over the investigation at the Denver Public Library… No sir, we're there now, we just need the authorization… Yes sir, we'll let you know if we need additional personnel." She turned to Jack in the driver's seat, "We have authorization."

"Oh goody, just what I always wanted." O'Neill led them through the large double doors then followed Sam's directions back to the mythology section. Although it wasn't exactly all that hard to find considering all the cops and CSIs hovering in the area. Jack went to duck under the yellow caution tape but was stopped by a young uniformed officer.

"I'm sorry sir, you can't come in here. This is a crime scene."

"Very good, and now it belongs to me." He flashed his credentials in the young mans face and proceeded to duck under the tape. "Who's in charge here?"

Carter and Teal'c began looking around the cordoned off area while O'Neill spoke to the detective in charge. What they saw was not comforting. The was no sign of Jonas, but there were definite indications of a struggle everywhere, including a couple rather large pools of blood.

**STARGATE: SG-1**

AS least he knew his head was still attached. Of course, the only reason he knew that was true because it was throbbing in time with his heartbeat. And unfortunately, his head wasn't the only thing that was throbbing. It took Jonas another few minutes to clear his head enough to take stock of the rest of his body: only one eye would open, lips were cut and swollen, ribs were stiff and extremely sore, and his right thigh was on fire. The fact that he was tied to a chair only made the situation seem that much worse.

"Well, look who decided to join the land of the living. How are you feeling Mr. Quinn?"

"Like you care," he mumbled over split lips. He put on his best 'pissed off O'Neill' look, but figured it wasn't worth much considering he could only glare with his right eye.

"Actually, I do. We need you alive, and preferably coherent."

"So you shot me because…" he'd been hanging out with Jack way too much. "Besides, what makes you think I'll do you any good 'alive and coherent'." He would have made the air quotes Sam had taught him if his hands hadn't been tied to the chair.

Agent White smiled evilly, "you're going to give us the stabilization equations for the sublight engines."

Jonas cleared his throat, "um, like hell." Yup, definitely spending too much time with Jack.

"Oh I think you will, or we'll just have to blow up the SGC."

"Wow, cliché." He shivered unconsciously when White's eyes glowed in response to his remark.


	3. Chapter 3

"You know, I'm going to need my hands if I'm going to give you those equations." Free hands meant an opportunity for escape, which was good because there was no way in hell he was going to give them the real equations. "Its not like I can explain them to you."

His insulting tone earned him another blow to his temple. "All in good time, Mr. Quinn. There's no point in having the equations until we're ready to test the engines; wouldn't want you to accidentally give us the wrong equations. Sleep well, Mr. Quinn."

Jonas was still trying to clear his head from the last blow when the door slammed shutting, finally leaving him alone in the stark room. The room was empty except for Jonas and the chair in which he sat. Jonas had no doubt the team was doing everything possible to find him, but it wouldn't hurt to give them a little help. He could feel the bulge of his cell phone in the hidden pocket of his Dockers. If he could get his hands free, if his phone hadn't been damaged in the fight, and if it would work after being covered in his blood, then he would be able to get a call off to Sam. That was one hell of a lot of 'ifs'.

Okay, first things first, he needed to get his hands free. Unfortunately from the look and feel of the ropes, getting them loose enough to slide his hands out was going to take all night. Realizing he needed to get started, Jonas took a deep breath, and instantly regretted it. Apparently, his ribs were sore for a reason, the grating sensation he just felt was a very good indication that at least one of them was broken.

"Note to self, don't do _that_ again."

He regained his composure and immediately began working on the ropes that held his hands. Knowing that the friction coefficient of rope on rope would be greater than that of rope on smooth wood, he manipulated his shoulders enough that his hands could touch behind his back. It wasn't comfortable in any sense of the word, but it was his best bet.

His wrists were bloody within minutes, but that infamous Quinn perseverance shown through and he continued until the ropes loosened enough to fall away from his slick hands.

"That'll work." For the first time since his capture, Jonas allowed a genuine smile to grace his handsome face.

**STARGATE: SG-1**

"Holy hell! Which sample was this?"

Jack quickly walked over and snatched the paper out of the detective's hand. "That's classified, and now you're going to take these nice, young SFs back to your lab and give them every single shred of evidence you gathered from this scene. Including _all_ blood samples. Got it?" Apparently O'Neill's glare was effective as ever because the seasoned detective cowed his head and followed the four SFs to a waiting car. Jack grabbed one of the SFs on her way past, "turn that lab upside down, make sure you get everything."

"Yes sir."

Carter looked up from the witness statements as Jack approached her. He looked like he wanted to say something but remained silent and stared at the floor. She followed his gaze to the blood stains on the white tile. "Sir?"

"Well we know at least one of these is from Jonas. Hopefully only one," he added under his breath. The frustration and worry were evident in his voice.

Sam and Teal'c shared a look of surprise. They both knew that the Col. had accepted Jonas as a valuable member of the team, but when exactly had the kid from Kelowna wormed his way into that place in Jack's heart that he reserved for his closest friends. "We'll find him, sir, and he's going to be alright."

"JonasQuinn is a highly intelligent and strong man. I have no doubt he will find a way to make it through this situation."

"Yeah, Teal'c, I know he will." O'Neill took a breath to compose himself and returned to full Col. mode. "What do that witness statements say?"

Carter sighed, "not much sir. A couple people heard a commotion and headed this way to investigate. Before they saw anything, they heard a gun shot and decided that it would be safer to let the security guard handle things. By the time he got here, they were gone. The shot was apparently from my sidearm, my clip is minus one, but no prints."

Jack was still hung up on the words 'gunshot', what had the kid gotten himself into now. He visibly jumped when Carter's phone rang.

"That's probably the Gen. wanting an update. "She flipped open the phone, "Carter… Jonas!?"

**STARGATE: SG-1**

Jonas nearly melted with relief, "Sam, I'm in some trouble here… I don't know where I am, but it's agents Cross, Singer, and one other…"

"Son-of-a-bitch!"

The out-raged yell gave Jonas a half second warning before agent Cross slammed into him, knocking the phone from his hand and sending the wireless earpiece sliding across the room. Jonas spared a glance at the earpiece laying in the corner, he allowed a sliver of hope into his chest when the little blue light continued to blink.

Realizing that his plan just might succeed, he turned to fight Cross in earnest. Thank God he'd been working out with Teal'c lately. Unfortunately, that advantage disappeared when White and Singer joined the fray. Jonas gave nearly as good as he got until White wised up and stomped down on the already bleeding wound on his right thigh.

Jonas managed a pained grunt before he slumped to the ground completely unresponsive.

**STARGATE: SG-1**

Jack and Teal'c watched the color drain from Sam's face, neither realized that they had been holding their breath since she'd whispered Jonas's name. O'Neill snatched the phone from her and held it to his own ear. Hearing three men discussing what to do with 'that f#ing alien' only made Jack's heart climb higher in his throat.

Having her phone grabbed from her hand seemed to bring Carter out of her stupor. She yanked the phone back out of Jack's hand and practically sprinted toward the computer bank. "I need a trace on this call, NOW!"


	4. Chapter 4

The technician wiped the sweat from his brow for the tenth time in as many minutes, having an incredibly strong alien literally breathing down his neck was not exactly relaxing. Of course, having a full Col. and a Major wearing a hole in the floor behind him wasn't helping either. "Fifty more minutes, sirs."

"Fifty?!"

The young man winced at the insinuated threat. "I'm sorry sir, he must be in a mountainous area. It will take the satellite forty-eight minutes to move into range and another three minutes to acquire the signal. But I can give you a general heading." He winced again when three glares were turned his way.

Jack lost his patience when the tech didn't speak up immediately, "Then do it!"

"Uh, yes sir. He's roughly two hours west of our location." He turned just in time to see the three members of SG-1 clearing the library doors.

Five minutes later Sam was grabbing the dashboard and reciting every prayer she'd ever heard. "Sir, I know you're worried about Jonas, but we're not going to do him any good if we're dead. And one really good way to stay alive is by driving on the right side of the road." She didn't quite catch his growled response, but it was enough to tell her that her side-seat driving was not appreciated.

"I believe Maj. Carter to be correct, this is most dangerous."

"Fine," O'Neill bit out as he swerved back onto the right side of the road. "I wish we could still hear what is going on."

Sam sighed, "me too sir, but they needed to keep the phone to get a trace."

**STARGATE: SG-1**

At that point, Jonas was wishing he didn't know what was going on. He'd paid dearly for his phone call, but it had been worth it. From the corner of his good eye Jonas could still see the little blue blinking light that had become his lifeline. It was becoming increasingly hard to hold a thought in his head, most likely from the concussion or the blood loss, they had neglected to re-bandage the gunshot wound after White had stomped on it.

"That was not smart, Mr. Quinn, and it didn't even do you any good. Now, the time has come to give up those equations."

Jonas grunted as he was lifted off the floor and shoved into a chair. "And what happens if I decide not to cooperate?" He eyed Cross and Singer as they guarded the door, both wielding Zats.

White grinned, "simple, we kill you, plant a bomb in you that we'll detonate when your friends take your body back to the SGC."

Jonas digested that information with a grim shake of his head. Obviously, he needed to buy himself some time. "I'm dead either way, aren't I?" He sighed when White nodded, "thought so. Alright, I need paper. The least I can do is stop you from destroying the SGC."

Twenty minutes later, Jonas was on his third piece of paper, the first two having been reduced to crumpled balls of scratched out scrawling.

"What the hell's taking so long? They said you fixed this in under a minute on the Prometheus."

"Fixing a few key strokes is one thing, writing them all down from scratch is just a bit harder. Besides, on the Prometheus, half my blood wasn't pooled on the floor beneath me," he snapped.

White leaned over Jonas's shoulder, his eyes flashing. "If you don't finish in the next five minutes, _all_ your blood will be pooled on the floor beneath you."

Jonas tried not to let his fear show, he just had to keep telling himself that he was doing this for the team. They may not make it in time to save him, but hopefully he could hold out long enough so that White wouldn't have time to plant the bomb. Swallowing hard, he began the final equation. He had made enough alterations to the equations that while the sublight engines would ignite, they would only burn for thirty seconds. "There, you can go ahead and kill me now." His voice sounded a lot stronger than he felt.

White snatched the paper from in front of him, "Oh, we won't be doing that just yet." He scanned the equations as he stalked toward the fax machine in the other room. He highly doubted the alien would give him the correct equations on the first go-round, but it wouldn't hurt to check.

Ten minutes later, he had his answer. He crumpled the response as he turned back toward the door with a feral grin; he was going to enjoy this.

**STARGATE: SG-1**

Sam hung up her phone with a small sigh of relief. "We have the coordinates, sir, ETA thirty minutes. SG-3 and 12 should beat us there by a couple minutes. General Landry dispatched them as soon as we got Jonas's phone call."

"Good, but they'll only have clean up duty if I have anything to do with it. I want these guys to myself, nobody messes with my geek."

"Col. O'Neill, I also wish to participate in the dismemberment of these individuals."

Jack gritted his teeth as he narrowly avoided an oncoming car, "fine, but I'm only sharing with you two."

Sam grinned slightly, "deal sir." O'Neill and Teal'c weren't the only ones who wanted a piece of these guys. She and Jonas had grown close over the last few weeks, it was hard not to with as much time as they spent together, and she still blamed herself for him being taken. It had been her job to watch out for him, and she'd failed.


	5. Chapter 5

The metallic taste of blood was not pleasant in his mouth, but he smiled despite the new pain. He'd managed to completely ruin their plans without them having a clue. Those alterations he'd made to the equations were now ingrained in the memory of the engine's control systems and nothing short of scrapping the entire system would allow the engines to ever start again.

"Don't tell me you're enjoying this."

"This no, the fact that your sublight engines will never ignite again, very much so." Jonas turned on his signature smile, he knew that if Jack had been there, he would have shot Jonas himself for smiling.

White signaled to the other two agents to let go of Jonas. Unable to support himself on only his left leg, he fell to the floor with a pained grunt. White bent down face to face with Jonas. He roughly grabbed Jonas's chin and forced him to look into his eyes. "What the hell are you talking about?" He articulated each word slowly and carefully.

Jonas winced as White's fingers dug into his jaw. "Only that those equations I gave you were a virus that wiped out your entire control system." Again with the smile, he figured he could blame it on the fever raging through his body.

White lost all control at the appearance of that smile. He shoved Jonas's arm up behind his back until he heard that all satisfying pop, using his new found leverage, he slammed his captive's head into the ground one last time.

Cross looked down at the unresponsive alien at his feet. He took an unconscious step backwards to avoid the growing pool of blood. "Now what, Voss is literally going to kill us when he finds out about the control systems."

"Now we kill him. Hopefully, if we can destroy the SGC we can manage to stay alive." He snatched the Zat from Singer, "go pack up and bring me the surgical kit."

White listened to the door close as he aimed the Zat at Jonas's head. After a minute he lowered the weapon, realizing he would get a lot more satisfaction from killing the man with his bare hands. He was so intent on his visions of various ways to take a life that he didn't hear the fight occurring in the other room.

Sam popped up from behind the desk and fired to cover Jack as he moved toward the door to the other room. In her opposite field of vision, she could see Teal'c taking out his frustrations on Agent Singer. From the looks of things, Singer wouldn't be leaving the infirmary for a very long time. Carter inched toward the edge of the desk, smiling as Cross continued to fire at the spot that she had just vacated. Men were _so_ gullible. She continued to move towards him unnoticed until she was within striking distance. She may not be Teal'c, but she was no slouch in hand to hand combat.

Teal'c was indeed enjoy himself, although he wished Singer had presented more of a challenge. After ensuring that his opponent was out for the count, he zip tied his hands and turned his attention to Sam and Cross. Initially he'd worried that she would need help, but it would appear that Cross was the one that needed a hand. Carter's face was flushed from anger and adrenaline, but she smiled as she delivered a sharp elbow to his temple. Teal'c returned her grin, they were getting their teammate back, and taking out a little retribution in his name. O'Neill had been correct, nobody messed with their geek. Teal'c headed toward the other room where he could hear another brawl taking place.

Jack had thoroughly enjoyed the look on White's face when he burst through the door. That enjoyment quickly turned to blind rage when he spied his teammate's broken body on the floor. Jack launched himself at White, not waiting for the shock of his appearance to dissipate. The next thing he knew, Carter and Teal'c were pulling him off the unconscious NID agent.

"He's no longer a threat, Col. O'Neill."

Sam had left them to check on Jonas. He was just starting to stir when she reached him. "Jonas? Come on Jonas, let's see that smile." She reached out a hand to touch his shoulder.

Jonas grasped as his brain began receiving the pain messages from various parts of his body. "Oh God, Sam don't touch me!"

Carter immediately snatched her hand back and took a second to survey the damage done to her friend. From the awkward position of the head of his Humerus, she knew that the shoulder was dislocated, definitely not a pleasant sensation. The wound to his thigh had apparently stopped bleeding, but the laceration above his right eye had taken its place. The young Kelownan was bathed in sweat. "Sir, we need to find out that chopper's ETA."

Jack reached for his radio, but was stopped when SG-3 and 12 fanned into the building. Much to everyone's relief, Janet was two steps behind them. Jack's yell brought her running to the back room.

Janet dropped to her knees next to Jonas, "Oh Jonas, what have you gotten yourself into this time?"

"Just don't touch my shoulder and I promise I'll behave," Jonas managed a weak grin.

Dr Fraiser returned his smile, but the worry remained in her eyes. Sgt Silverman, the medic from SG-3, helped her set up vitals monitoring and do initial bandaging of his obvious wounds. Both were careful not to disturb his shoulder, yet. That would have to come later. Janet was not happy as she watched the numbers climb steadily on the thermometer.

SG-1 shifted anxiously in the background, none of them were used to being on the sidelines. After securing the prisoners, the other two SG teams joined them, standing silently until Janet rounded on them. "Don't just stand there, go get the rest of my supplies and tell that pilot to be ready to have the chopper in the air in two minutes." She directed her attention to SG-1, "his blood pressure is dropping, his heart rate's up and I don't like the looks of this infection."

"Um, I'm laying right here." Jonas had attempted to inject some humor into the statement to ally some of their fears, but his attempt fell flat, coming out weak and gravely.

Janet took advantage of his momentary distraction to manipulate his shoulder back into the socket. She knew the medication she'd injected hadn't taken effect yet, but she there wasn't room to do it on the helicopter.

Jonas's primal yell set everyone's nerves on edge. The sound of his shallow panting filled the following silence. "That… was… not… nice, and I am done behaving," he managed to grind out through clenched teeth.

"Just try to relax Jonas, the medication should take effect in a minute." She and Silverman continued checking injuries until SG-12 reported that the pilot was ready whenever Janet was. Jonas was quickly bundled onto a field stretcher and strapped into the helicopter. Janet watched his eyes throughout the entire process, only becoming worried when they began closing of their own accord. "Jonas," she shook his good shoulder until those green eyes blinked back open, "I need you to stay awake for me, at least until we get back to the SGC."

"Sorry, I told you I was done behaving."

**So, I know that I refer to Jonas as a geek a lot, but I call myself a geek all the time, so its ok.**


	6. Chapter 6

Jack and Teal'c watched with smiles as White, Cross and Singer were each deposited into different cells. "They look a little worse than when we left them, Ferretti."

Ferretti rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. "Uh yeah, well, they fell down a couple times sir." He cleared his throat, praying that he wouldn't get court marshaled for this, "he's not only _your_ geek sir." He quickly walked away before Jack could rip him the new one he figured he deserved.

"I did not realize JonasQuinn has made so many friends in the short time he has been here."

"Yeah, me neither, what do you say we go check on the kid?"

"Indeed."

Turned out, they weren't the only ones with that particular idea, they ran into Carter just outside the infirmary. But all three stopped just inside the door when they spied Lt. Rush hovering over Jonas.

O'Neill leaned toward Sam and whispered quietly, "think we should leave them alone?" Apparently he wasn't quite enough because the Lt. straightened up and spun around to face them. "Everything ok, Lt?"

"Um, yes sir." Rush could feel the heat creeping up to flush her cheeks. "He's stable and his temperature has dropped dramatically. Uh, I have to go check on, uh, another patient. Excuse me, sir."

"It appears JonasQuinn has admirers as well as friends."

Carter couldn't hold it in any longer, she doubled over laughing silently. Jack pulled up a chair for her and pounded her on the back when it became evident that she'd stopped breathing. Sam collapsed gratefully in the proffered chair. She pulled the chair closer to her friend's bed and took his exposed hand. "He looks so young," she mused.

"Well, believe it or not, he's only twenty-six."

They turned to Janet in unison, "Twenty-six?"

"You said you wouldn't tell anyone," a weak and sleep muddled voice floated up from the bed between them.

Janet, laid a hand on his head, ever mindful of his injuries. "I said I wouldn't tell anyone until you settled in and I think you officially settled in a couple months ago. How are you feeling?"

Jonas turned to look Jack in the eye before answering. "Oh, just peachy."

Jack couldn't help but grin, his geek was obviously going to be ok. "What is it with everyone stealing my lines?"

His only reply was a shit-eating grin as Jonas sank back onto the pillows. He would have run a hand through his hair, but Sam was clinging to his right hand and his entire left arm was strapped to his chest to protect his ribs and shoulder. He felt like he'd been put through the proverbial ringer, but he was home now with his team, his family. And, he'd even managed to foil an evil alien plot, which just made it all that much better. He couldn't help but smile as he surveyed his friends; it was then that he noticed Jack's hands. "Col., what happened to your hands?" He didn't miss the fact that Sam and Teal'c both made a move to hind their own hands.

"Oh, ah, Agent White accidentally ran into my fist a couple dozen times." Jack scrubbed at his bruised knuckles, trying to wipe some of the dried blood away. He left the 'nobody messes with my team' comment left unsaid.

"Oh well thanks." He wasn't sure if that was the correct thing to say to a person who'd just beaten the hell out of someone for you, but it sounded right.

Teal'c watched as Jonas's eyes slowly clouded with pain and exhaustion. "I believe that it is time we take our leave before Dr Fraiser ushers us out forcefully. We will check on you later JonasQuinn, sleep well."

O'Neill and Carter had also observed the subtle change in their young friend and moved to follow Teal'c out of the infirmary. "Got a surprise for you when Janet finally lets you out of clutches," Jack threw over his shoulder.

**STARGATE: SG-1**

Jonas couldn't help but bounce a bit as Sam wheeled him up to the back entrance of the Denver Public Library. The bruises on his face and torso were still some rather interesting shades of blue, but his leg and shoulder were healing well according to Janet. She had released him the day before. "This is great, thanks so much for bringing me back here, but where is everyone?"

Jack chuckled, "With your track record we decided not to take any chances. The library is closed and we have SFs stationed at every exit."

"Oh"

Five hours later, Jack was sprawled out asleep in an overstuffed chair in the natural history section. Teal'c was in a deep state of Kel-no-reem on the floor next to him. Sam watched with a grin as Jonas finally lost the 'head-bobbing' war and his chin settled on to his chest for good. Feeling a light presence behind her, Sam knew that, at least for now, all was right with the world.


End file.
